Boy, the healthcare law dropped off the news radar way faster than I'd anticipated.

even when the major right-wing pundits and movement leaders were talking big about making the democrats suffer for this outrage and this 'death blow to democracy' etc etc you could almost palpably feel the air deflating out of this thing.

They had to wage a war of apoplectic, apocalyptic frenzy-building to maintain this in an attempt to keep it from going through. Given that the level of outrage and discomfort was very artificial to begin with AND that most of the actions of the bill are embarrassingly approvable on their own (this part keeps you from denying coverage to children based on 'pre existing conditions' OMG KILL THE BILL).

yeah even in good conditions for maintaining outrage you can't sustain that sort of emotion or appeals to fear.

Random stories on healthcare if anybody's still interested in the subject.

Henry Waxman called off an investigation into major corporations' claims that a provision in the new healthcare reforms will hurt their bottom line. Those companies will no longer receive a tax break on the federal subsidies they're getting for drug benefits of their retirees. However, other aspects of healthcare reform may lower the overall cost of healthcare for those companies. For some reason, the idea of getting a tax break on federal subsidies for major businesses is bending my brain.

Random stories on healthcare if anybody's still interested in the subject.

Henry Waxman called off an investigation into major corporations' claims that a provision in the new healthcare reforms will hurt their bottom line. Those companies will no longer receive a tax break on the federal subsidies they're getting for drug benefits of their retirees. However, other aspects of healthcare reform may lower the overall cost of healthcare for those companies. For some reason, the idea of getting a tax break on federal subsidies for major businesses is bending my brain.

Yeah, my father quoted that shit at me (after reading it in an Ag industry periodical) so I went and did some reading. It was such a disingenuous, trumped up claim it's almost beyond belief that major corporations all signed on. They're pissed that they can no longer write off taxpayer dollars they received, and not only had the balls to claim it was drastically increasing their costs (despite the fact that they still get the subsidy - they just can't write it off!), but the numbers they threw up as "WHAT WE'RE LOSING THIS YEAR ALONE!" were the adjustments of that loss extrapolated over the 30 years or so they expect to be paying for Billy-Bob's retirement care.

It's such a flat out lie, and yet another example of something I'll be encountering and refuting in local conversations for the next year or two._________________Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil. ~ Ellen Degeneres

The most powerful, proven instrument of material and social progress is the free market. The market economy, driven by the accumulated expressions of individual economic choices, is the only economic system that preserves and enhances individual liberty. Any other economic system, regardless of its intended pragmatic benefits, undermines our fundamental rights as free people.

Right, that's why black people and women can vote! Free-market economics! I want to punch somebody for this.
Notice that some of these issues were only approved of with a low-fifties percent vote. TYRANNY OF THE MAJORITY! And the criteria that any new tax code to replace the entire bulk of the IRS has to consist of 4,543 words or less because that's how long the original Constitution is? What a stupid way to decide anything.

i can see the health care debate is going to be one of those gotta-laugh-to-keep-from-crying things for a while, yet.

Well, to be fair the republicans back in the day were very much against medicare._________________A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

hopefully this will not spread to california. we already have animal rights activists causing trouble because we have mice in the basement for research, i don't know _what_ they will do when we start warehousing chickens we get in payment from cancer patients.

and we _will_ need warehouses for the damn things. i hate to think what the noise level will be like._________________aka: neverscared!
a flux of vibrant matter

Here's a nice little converter for how many chickens various procedures cost, on average._________________“Yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation”
yields falsehood when preceded by its quotation.